another year wiser | amber & james
She'd spent most of the night making sure she was on the other side of the room, not quite avoiding him, but not wanting to risk her drunkenness becoming another catalyst for some stupid argument in front everyone. Things were starting to wind down though and if she didn't do this now, she might end up too sober to go through with it so when she spotted him heading to the kitchen on his own, she politely excused herself from her current conversation and followed. Not at all creepy or obvious, right? "Hey" she said from behind him, trying not to let her words slur too much - the last thing she wanted was to give him the chance to blame this on Drunk Amber (even though she was in fact, very drunk). Grabbing the tote bag she'd stuffed under the counter as she entered the kitchen, she dug out the plainly wrapped package and held it out towards him. "I know we already did gifts or whatever and I hoped this would get here in time but it took me longer to track down than I thought it would, so..." she explained, almost nervously. Amber had never been wonderful when it came to letting people know how she felt and while he wasn't totally off the hook in her eyes, she knew she owed him a bit of an apology and the gift was meant to be part birthday, part amends. A reminder that even when she was pissed at him, rationally or irrationally, she did care about him and she was grateful he'd stuck it out this long - he was one of few that had. Carefully wrapped beneath the brown paper was a long searched out, only faintly tattered, first edition copy of As I Lay Dying, a book she knew was one of his favorites. At first it had seemed like a brilliant idea but standing there watching as he lifted the paper back she was suddenly filled with dread and shook her head. "You probably already have one, don't you? I just remember you talking about your dad giving that book to you when you were younger and going through a rough spot and I just thought...." her voice trailed off, she didn't know what she'd thought. Or at least she didn't know how to sum up all the reasons it had seemed like a meaningful choice. @ftfranco















